Omer Said
Said88.jpg|1988 Lotus of Said Said91.jpg|1991 Lotus of Said Said92.jpg|1992 Lotus of Said Said93.jpg|1993 Lotus of Said Said94.jpg|1994 Lotus of Said Said95.jpg|1995 Sauber of Said SAI97.jpg|1997 Jordan of Said SAI98.jpg|1998 McLaren of Said KER98.jpg|1998 Jordan of Said SAI99.jpg|1999 Jordan of Said SAI00.jpg|2000 Jordan of Said Omer Said is a Turkish racing driver who races at Race Department Simulation Career. Formula One career 1988 Having failed to get any seats at the 1987 season due to economical constraints, Said entered the 1988 season with more ambition, and eventually successfully signed a contract with Team Lotus thanks to his country's financial backing. Driving as Sebastien Levret's team-mate, Said managed to win the first race of the season with a dominant performance. After two terrible races, he won again at the fourth race of the season at Mexico, Hermanos Rodriguez. Fifth race of the season, Canadian Grand Prix went very bad for him. He qualified only 13th on the grid. In the first part of the race he was held up by Fred Owen's March, and eventually crashed out into the barriers after a collision with Williams' Old Wolf. Sixth and seventh rounds of the season too, did not go well for Said as he retired at Detroit and finished 18th at France. With the eighth round of the season, Said's luck turned and he managed to prove a great climb-up into 2nd from 17th grid spot. His title rival Aidan Keranen's retirement rose him up to the championship lead again. The German Grand Prix started well for Said as he was qualified on 7th. But the race was marred by constant traffic, then Sasha Jednak pushed him out of the track while fighting for the 6th position. He returned to track in 14th, and finished there as the incident happened on the final few laps. Hungary was a terrible race for Said again. Starting from a bad position due to his poor qualifying performance, the Turkish had a race with fightings in the midfield until his engine gave up. Belgian Grand Prix, which is held on Said's personal favorite track, Spa-Francorchamps, witnessed Said's return to podium. After a problematic qualifying session, Said started from the dead last, 22th spot. But with a great pitstop strategy and focused drive, he managed to finish on 2nd. After Belgium, Said failed to prove a solid performance and finished the season on 3rd position. Only highlight was the 3rd place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. 1991 Said decided to stick with Team Lotus. But the season went very abyssmal for the Turkish driver. Failed to score any points and finished on 21st position. 1992 Again with Team Lotus, Said started the season with a points finish at South Africa. But the rest of the season did not so well. A few points finishes and a 3rd place podium at Portugal were the highlights of the season. Even tough having a bad season, Said was happy with the realibilty of the car. He finished the season on 15th spot with 12 points. 1993 Said extended his contract with the British squad, Team Lotus. The first race at South Africa ended with a crash and it was repeated with the European Grand Prix. These two bad races were seperated with a third place in Brasil. Chasing Lesley Buurlage of Tyrell, Said finished on 2nd for three consecutive times and managed to achieve victory at the French Grand Prix to decrease the gap with the leader to 20 points. After a disappointing 7th in Germany, Said bounced back by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix from the pole position. The Turkish driver managed to stay in the lead for the whole race and won ahead of his team-mate, Sebastien Levret with a crushing 1 minute gap. This result shrinked his title-fight gap to 24 points. Said's favorite track, Spa-Francorchamps presented a nightmare for the Lotus driver. After starting on 3rd, he quickly began to lose ground against Tyrells and finally had a gearbox problem while Buurlage finished on 2nd place. Said started on pole at the Porteguese Grand Prix, but could not hold Lesley off and finished 2nd behind him. With this result, Lesley became the world champion before two races of the season's end. Said made a great finish to the season with a pole position and a victory at Austrulia. With this result, he finished the championship as the runner-up to Lesley Buurlage. 1994 Said retained his seat at Team Lotus for another year. He teamed up with Sebastien Levret again. In the winter tests, solid laptimes encouraged the team and the Turkish driver. Said began to the season with high hopes and title ambitions. First race at Brasil was a big disappointment for Lotus as Said finished on 11th while Levret came 13th. Said stated his unhappiness clearly after the race. Next several races kept going terrible and without point finishes and Said made numerous negative statements about Lotus' poor performance. Just in these times, after the British Grand Prix, Lotus announced their withdrawal from F1 at the end of the season. Said immediately started negotiations for a new contract for 1995 season. After the European Grand Prix, in which Said scored 1 point, he announced his contract with Sauber for the next season. 1995 With his new team, Red Bull Sauber Ford, the Turkish driver paired up with the Greek driver, Manolis Sigoulakis. Said expressed his high hopes for the season in the pre-season testings and his laptimes were solid. The season opener at Brasil went terrible for Said. After a rainy and chaotic qualifying, he started on 15th place. In the race he got into a few incidents and pitted for repairs one time. In the end he finished 17th. But the car showed a glimpse of good pace and it gave him hope for the next races. Disappointment of the first race vanished in Argentina as Said took the 4th spot on the grid and finished the race with a promising 2nd place amidst many retirements and incidents. Even tough the Turkish driver expressed his happiness with the result, he reminded that luck played a great part in his podium finish. Remainder of the season went terrible for Said as Sauber suffered many reliability issues and lacked the pace. Said also made some mistakes which ruined his solid qualifying results. After a very misfortunate and frustrating season, Said declared that he will take a year off in 1996 and reconsider his options ahead. 1997 Said negotiated with several teams before the start of the season, but could not find any opening for himself. Then Eddie Jordan and Davin Rizuki had some problems about their contract agreements and Rizuki left the team abruptly. This opening provided Said with a seat at Jordan. He teamed up with Rami Saidy, another newcomer to the team. Despite the fact that he did not have a chance to test the car in the winter tests, at the Austrulian grand prix, Said managed to qualify on 6th position, and finish the race in 5th spot after dropping down in the start. Even though Said had a strong qualifying performance, his race results were not bright as much. His two pole positions did not bring him any victory. He expressed his discontent with the pace of the car. After the Italian Grand Prix, Said announced his contract deal with McLaren for 1998. This announcement widened the gap between him and Eddie Jordan. While his relationship with the team considered to be getting worse, he managed to score a podium finish at Japan. After the race, Said and Jordan were seen in a friendly manner together holding the trophy. 1998 Said made a proper start with his new team, Mclaren. Scored points in first 3 races, and finished on 2nd place at Argentina. But then the things went downhill. After three retirements and pointless races, Said and the team began to quarrel, publicly after the French Grand Prix at which the Turkish driver retired once again. To everybody's surprise, Aidan Keranen and Said swapped seats days before the British Grand Prix, even though the Turkish driver left Jordan with a bitter-sweat in the end of 1997. Eddie Jordan welcomed back Said warmly as the two posed friendly handshakes to the media. The swap brought it's fruits immediately as Said returned to points with a 5th position finish. However, the rest of the season did not live up to the hype in Britian, Said's races were marred by technical problems, personal mistakes and lack of qualifying pace. Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Grand Prix wins Endurance Career Said participated in Epsilon Euskadi Endurance Series for two seasons (1889-1990) with 2KF1 Racing. He managed to win a race and helped his team to get a constructor's title. DTM Career Said participated in Germany's most prestigious touring car series, DTM as well. He raced for Vodafone GT Racing while he had a race victory and plenty of points in his first season. In his 2nd season, he switched to Speedy Racing after missing 2 weekends. Rest of the season did not go well for the Turkish, and he decided to retire from the series at the end of the season. Formula FG Career Said, Omer Said, Omer